King Gets In a Few Shots : Boxing: Trinidad promoter says there will be a rematch if purses are reversed, and calls De La Hoya a coward.

Demand received. Rematch granted.

But only under Don King’s financial terms.

Twenty-four hours after Oscar De La Hoya had demanded a rematch against Felix Trinidad during a visit to The Times, King, Trinidad’s promoter, responded through the paper, saying his fighter would be happy to fight De La Hoya again, as long as the purses were reversed. King also took the opportunity to question De La Hoya’s courage.

When Trinidad won a majority decision over De La Hoya last Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, adding De La Hoya’s World Boxing Council welterweight title to his International Boxing Federation crown, De La Hoya made more than $23 million, Trinidad $10.5 million. De La Hoya earned so much more because he has been able to generate more revenue than any other non-heavyweight.

“If they agree to trade places, the fight is on,” King said from Washington. “We are ready to meet him at high noon or any time in any place.”

King, however, disparaged De La Hoya for his tactics over the final three rounds, when he ran and covered up, claiming he felt victory was already assured by his performance over the first nine rounds.

“He really hurt himself the way he was running,” King said. “It was appalling. It was despicable. He was running like Carl Lewis or Jesse Owens. Nobody had to beat him. He beat himself.

“I think he was afraid. I truly think he was afraid. Oscar is a terrific fighter. But when you see the way Oscar fought, the way he was not even willing to exchange blows, I think he was afraid of getting knocked out. I would have liked to have seen him go in there and fight the fight of the millennium. Oscar has been crucified and he now needs to be resurrected and we are ready, willing and able to let him do so. . . .

“Felix Trinidad was right when he said Oscar’s nickname, Chicken De La Hoya, came true. It ain’t about money now. It’s about Oscar living with himself. He has put himself in a precarious position. Whatever he wants to do, whether it’s act or sing, he can’t go out of boxing as a runner. It will always follow him.

“His fan base is eroding and it will eventually collapse. They are looking at him with a jaundiced eye in the Spanish community, from Mexico to South America. They understand losing. They don’t understand running. You cannot sell the Mexican people on the idea that you were running instead of fighting and then cry sour grapes that somebody took something from you. It would have been better to be knocked down and dragged out. That would have been more respectable.”

King also included the live audience among those he said were disappointed by De La Hoya’s performance.

“The movie stars were appalled,” he said. “They came to see a great battle. They came to see the fight of the millennium. Then this guy just frustrated all of his fans--Kevin Costner, Sylvester Stallone, Billy Crystal. Nobody knew what Oscar was doing. It was embarrassing to me and I was winning.”

King is obviously trying to goad De La Hoya into accepting his terms, although the more likely scenario is that the fighters will meet halfway, each receiving about $15 million.

“Oscar needs to redeem himself,” King said. “Money should not be an object. He’s got to live the lie or be redeemed.

“When I made the deal for the first fight, my only concern was the benefit of my fighter. We wanted the belt. We sacrificed short-term pain for long-term gain. I told [De La Hoya’s promoter, Bob] Arum, ‘Don’t do the deal with me unless it is [the type of deal] that you would also want to receive.’ He said OK because he never dreamed his guy would lose.”

King discounted statements by Arum and De La Hoya on Wednesday that there always seems to be controversy when King is involved, insinuating that he somehow influenced the judges.

“Whenever there is an unpopular decision, they try to give me perverted power that doesn’t exist,” King said. “Whenever something doesn’t go the way they want, they try to use me as a scapegoat. I can take it. I can take the bitter with the sweet and try to remove the bitterness and improve the sweetness.

“Arum is misleading the kid. Arum told him he had the fight in the bag. Nevada has the best commission in the world. They have an impeccable reputation. I told that to my fighter. The Nevada commission looks 10 feet tall now around the world. Fair play is their hallmark. You are talking about one of the strongest commissions. They don’t need Don King as a co-signer.”

While focusing his remarks on De La Hoya, King couldn’t resist taking a few shots at Arum, his main adversary over the years. At a pre-fight news conference at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas, King had challenged Arum to a private $1-million bet, the money to go to charity. Arum refused, saying it wouldn’t have been ethical.

“That took the heart out of his fighter right there,” King said. “It was like he was giving his fighter a eulogy. I built my fighter’s confidence up. Arum took his fighter’s confidence from him and left it on the Paris floor. He used some crafty language instead of saying to me that we should make it a $3-million bet. He tried to vilify me and assassinate my character in a place where betting is the gross national product. Arum may have changed Oscar right there because he didn’t have the heart to make the bet.”

De La Hoya said Wednesday he would like the rematch late next spring, ideally on Cinco de Mayo, May 5, a Mexican holiday. King said Thursday that if that is indeed the date, Trinidad will first fight James Page, the World Boxing Assn. welterweight champion, in a bid to become undisputed champion of the division.

“If De La Hoya wants to fight, we’ll fight,” King said. “If not, we will go on about our business. We’ll go as quick as he wants. But if the extra money means more to him than the belt, Oscar will never fight for the title. Not against Felix.

“This is not a negotiating ploy. Exchanging purses is a fair exchange. It’s not robbery. If you don’t want to fight, there are two ways to get out of it. One is to say you don’t want to fight. The other one is subterfuge. Blame it on Don. He is the culprit.

“That’s fine. Felix will go on as a two-time champion, as if Oscar doesn’t exist, if necessary, because Oscar is titleless.”

But, title or no title, De La Hoya is still the drawing card. Trinidad can’t make the kind of money he will be guaranteed against De La Hoya, whatever the figure, against anybody else. Does King really think anybody believes that he and his fighter would turn down such a guarantee just because it wasn’t the figure King had in mind?

“Just watch me and see,” King said. “Don’t forget, Oscar could never reach [Saturday’s 1.25 million pay-per-view buys] without Felix. Oscar never before had 800,000 buys. So tell me about it, brother.”

Even so, King knows only one match makes sense for his fighter.

“Let the word go forth to friend and foe alike that we are ever ready for a rematch,” he said. “Arum is trying to scare Oscar by telling him King is the boogeyman. Oscar has a chance to do something great. If not, God bless him.

“Stay tuned. We are going to get Oscar back in there and we are going to do it with dignity and pride.”